Clad in a head-covering, zipper-appointed hoodie, wearing a grim look of concern and wielding a massive sword made to look like a key, the vision of Mickey Mouse that next came to gamers was a far cry from the smiling, happy, "Oh, boy!" version made most prominent through his first two decades in the industry – it was the Heartless-battling King Mickey, introduced in the wildly popular Disney/Square Enix cross-over game Kingdom Hearts. This was an all-new take on Mickey Mouse. Angry, resolved and determined to save his kingdom from impending invasion, he ventures out on a quest – as a lone warrior – to fight against the forces of evil.

But that's mostly all behind the scenes. Most of 2002's original Kingdom Hearts adventure keeps Mickey Mouse away and out of the spotlight, partnering your player character instead with Donald and Goofy for the majority of the adventure – and that just adds to the new Mickey's cool factor. He has this air of mystery about him, you frequently aren't sure where he is or what he's doing, and the times when you do see him it's in brief, butt-kicking sequences that establish him as a capable, imposing warrior.

Millions loved the new look and re-envisioning of the Mouse and the cross-over of the tons of other Disney characters in the series, and Kingdom Hearts kicked off an entire series. A sequel came to the PlayStation 2 in 2005, a spin-off dropped on the Game Boy Advance a year before and new sequels continue to arrive to this day on a variety of different platforms. Mickey's never been the singular main character in any of them, making the Kingdom Hearts series not so much Mickey games as they are more general Disney games with Mickey making an occasional appearance. But those appearances have been frequent enough to impact his character, and how video games fans now view him as a mascot. It's been an important chapter.

Elsewhere, though, things weren't going so well for Mickey's more traditional side. The PlayStation 2 served as the birthplace for the new Kingdom Hearts Mickey, but through the same stretch of years he also popped up a couple of times on the GameCube – in some of his worst and most disappointing roles ever.

Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse – once again developed by Capcom and published by Nintendo – was a painstakingly boring point-and-click intended specifically for young children. You had no direct control over Mickey in it, instead simply moving a cursor around the screen to highlight and interact with objects while collecting stars and solving very simple puzzles.

Disney's Hide & Sneak was a pseudo-sequel to Magical Mirror, and offered more of the same – with the addition of some light stealth elements. You actually could control Mickey's movements with the analog stick this time as he ducked around corners and dodged enemy characters, but the feel was still simplistic and targeted to the very young. What's worse, its entire quest could be completed in just about two hours.

So though Nintendo helped Mickey Mouse get his start in video games and took on publishing duty for several of his titles over the years, his iconic image clearly didn't come through and assist the ailing GameCube much through the last hardware generation. He was too busy over on the PS2, wielding that Keyblade and kicking butt.

Mickey's Epic Future 2010 – ???

Which brings us to today. After a somewhat inconsistent journey through three decades' worth of different gaming platforms, different genres and different developers, Mickey Mouse has come to a point where he's ready to be definitively redefined. Here in 2010 he's still got some of his past gaming history continuing into the future – mostly through the continued success of the Kingdom Hearts franchise – but, as an individual mascot, he's about to be reborn.

Disney Epic Mickey will arrive as a new Wii-exclusive adventure in America on November 30 of this year. When it does, it's hoped that it will be the game that brings Mickey back to gaming greatness – and, from what we've seen and played so far, it very well could.

It's a platformer at its core, which is a plus – we haven't had a Mickey-headlined platforming game since back on the SNES and Genesis. Seriously, it'll be his very first run-and-jump game design since the industry shifted to 3D nearly 15 years ago. It's crazy that it's taken that long, but we're happy it's finally happening.

Another plus is that it will pay appropriate homage to his past. Elements of classic cartoons are being used to inspire several of the game's settings – in much the same way as titles like Mickey Mania have done before – and he'll be going up against Oswald the Lucky Rabbit as his nemesis, which is about as old-school as you can get with Disney (and a character that's never been utilized before in any video game).

Finally, like the mysteriously cool weapon-wielding Kingdom Hearts version of himself, this newest take on Mickey is purposefully intended to appeal to an audience older than elementary age. Epic Mickey is meant to be a flagship product helping Disney to rebrand and reintroduce Mickey as the more mischievous mouse that he once was, before he went all wholesome and edutainment-y. It's a welcome shift, as, after thirty years with the smiling guy teaching us about letters and numbers, it's time for a change.

And so concludes our look back at Mickey's Epic Gaming History. This hasn't been an exhaustive retrospective – the character has certainly had other gaming roles over the years, on consoles, handhelds and home computers both here in America and around the world. He's appeared in sports games like Disney Sports Skateboarding, trivia titles like Disney Think Fast, a couple of installments in Konami's Dance Dance Revolution franchise (Disney Grooves and Disney Mix) and even an MMO, Toontown Online. But if you've read this far then you can consider yourself now well acquainted with the high points of Mickey's journey through the gaming industry thus far.

And I'll leave you with a couple of questions, in case you'd care to Comment below – which was your favorite Mickey game? Did you have a favorite growing up, either among those I've mentioned or elsewhere? And do you think that the new "Epic Mickey" is a good, fresh direction for the character to take? We'll find out soon enough, as its November release date approaches – and the next chapter in Mickey's History begins.